Image forming apparatus and process cartridge

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an electrophotographic photoreceptor that has a photosensitive layer constituting a surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor;
• a charging device that charges the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor;
• an electrostatic charge image forming device that forms an electrostatic charge image on the charged surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor;
• a developing device that accommodates a developer containing a toner which contains toner particles and an external additive, and develops the electrostatic charge image formed on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor by the developer as a toner image;
• a transfer device that transfers the toner image formed on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor to a surface of a recording medium;
• and
• a cleaning device that includes a cleaning blade coming into contact with the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor and cleaning at least residual toner particles on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor,
• wherein the photosensitive layer of the electrophotographic photoreceptor contains a polyester resin (1) having a dicarboxylic acid unit (A) represented by Formula (A) and a diol unit (B) represented by Formula (B), and
• an angle θ between a tangent line at a contact point between the cleaning blade and the residual toner particles and a tangent line at a contact point between the residual toner particles and the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor is 35° or greater and 50° or less,
• in Formula (A), ArA1 and ArA2 each independently represent an aromatic ring that may have a substituent, LA represents a single bond or a divalent linking group, and nA1 represents 0, 1, or 2,
• in Formula (B), ArB1 and ArB2 each independently represent an aromatic ring that may have a substituent, LB represents a single bond, an oxygen atom, a sulfur atom, or —C(Rb1)(Rb2)-, nB1 represents 0, 1, or 2, Rb1 and Rb2 each independently represent a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 or more and 20 or less carbon atoms, an aryl group having 6 or more and 12 or less carbon atoms, or an aralkyl group having 7 or more and 20 or less carbon atoms, and Rb1 and Rb2 may be bonded to each other to form a cyclic alkyl group.